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Or – only recommendation
Agnė Kazlauskaitė, Head of the Commission Representation in Lithuania, explained in Žinių radiju that the Green Paper on Aging is only a consultation document intended to draw attention to the aging population and its future challenges. However, it is not necessary to follow these recommendations.
“The EC does not interfere with the right of states to design and implement their pension systems. It is not about insistent recommendations or suggestions that have legal force. The measures, decisions and their implementation are in the hands of the states themselves,” he said A. Kazlauskaitė.
According to her, the Green Paper refers to the relationship between people of retirement age and working now and in the future. Society is aging, so the relationship between these categories of people is constantly changing. It is the Green Book that shows what the possible future situation is: 2040.
The indicators are not encouraging
Mindaugas Lingė, president of the Social Affairs and Labor Commission of the Seimas, highlighted that this issue presented in the Green Paper had already been debated in the Social Affairs and Labor Commission last Wednesday. Statistics and future forecasts are not encouraging.
“We have had threatening statistics for many decades: the declining population in Lithuania is one of the most threatening in the European Union and the birth rate situation does not solve the problems.
The bottom line is simple: as society ages, the number of people of working age declines. To balance the load, the goal is for people to be able to work as long as possible. When politicians make one decision or another, the situation can only change with change, but we have no recipes for happiness or success. We will have to rely on those measures that have already been tried and tested, “explained M. Lingė on” Žinių radio “.
He also mentioned that currently Lithuanian men do not live as long as the EC recommends to work. That is why it is important to address health and life expectancy issues.
The pandemic also contributed to the deterioration of the indicators. According to M.Lingė, life expectancy in Lithuania has decreased by about 1.4 years, and many Lithuanians in the country have retired earlier, thus suffering, because in this case the amount of their permanent old-age pension is lower.
The situation is exacerbated by the desire of employers to have younger workers than older ones.
“We should focus more on keeping people in the labor market. But now the trends are opposite: older people feel anxious, insecure, employers also look for more cheap labor or where they need to adapt less to different circumstances, already that older people may find it more difficult to keep up. These employees are being replaced, “M. Lingė drew the situation in the country.
The retirement age will not be extended
However, he assured that Seimas is not considering extending the retirement age. However, according to M. Lingė, the EC Green Paper indicators are a serious sign that this demographic problem needs to be looked at more closely and long-term measures should be found to allow workers to remain in the labor market for as long as possible. a time. for as long as possible and guarantee a more dignified standard of living.
“Now we have the problem that the retirement age is not welcome, because pensions are not high and if people have the opportunity to stay in the labor market and earn, earn a higher income, of course, they choose it. We have about 2 percent. 76-80 people who are still working. This is not a high percentage, but it shows that people choose the opportunity to work, “said M. Lingė.
Today, women retire in Lithuania at age 63 and men at 64.
